Residents living nearby - and people who were staying on the caravan park close to the brothers' property - ended up being overrun with rats, posing what a judge who sentenced them today said was "a real risk to human health".

Holidaymakers arrived at the caravan park to find dead rats in the awnings and live ones running around the children's play area, which had to be closed and disinfected. The park's owners ended up having to refund the customers.

When exterminators were brought in , they ended up killing between 400 and 500 vermin and the estimated cost of cleaning the dump up was put at around £60,000.

The owners of the site say it has got out of control

Mold crown court heard the brothers began a waste collecting business when they lost a previous taxi business and ran into financial difficulties.

The business was properly run to start with but it turned out uneconomical to take the rubbish to tips, so they began sorting it at home their home in Gwellyn Avenue.

Prosecuting for Natural Resources Wales, barrister Christopher Stables said: “The defendants set up a completely unregistered waste transfer station within the grounds of their own dwelling, in a residential area.”

No environmental permit had been applied for and it was extremely unlikely that one would have been granted, the court heard.